Online report of the Progressive Review. Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it.

July 14, 2015

Clinton stories the media forgot to tell you about

Some friends

1976
-
Two Indonesian billionaires come to Arkansas. Mochtar Riady and Liem Sioe Liong
are close to Suharto. Riady is looking for an American bank to buy. Finds
Jackson Stephens with whom he forms Stephens Finance. Stephens will broker the
arrival of BCCI to this country and steer BCCI's founder, Hassan Abedi, to Bert
Lance. Riady's teen-age son is taken on as an intern by Stephens Inc. He later
says he was "sponsored" by Bill Clinton.

1977
- Apparently
because of pressure from Indonesia, Riady withdraws his bid to buy Burt Lance's
30% share of the National Bank of Georgia. Instead, a BCCI front man buys the
shares and Abedi moves to secretly take over Financial General - later First
American Bankshares -- later the subject of the only BCCI-connected scandal to
be prosecuted in the US.

1980
- Former
Arkansas official Larry Nichols will tell the George Putman Show in 1998 that
he had met with Clinton and Jackson Stephen's brother Witt and that Witt had
told Clinton that the Stephens were ready to back him for another run at the
governorship but that he had to "dry out on the white stuff."

1982
- Financial
General changes its name to First American and Clark Clifford is appointed
chairman. BCCI fronts begin acquiring controlling interest in banks and other
American financial institutions. In Arkansas, Jim McDougal purchases Madison
Guaranty Savings & Loan

1983 - Mochtar Riady
forms Lippo Finance & Investment in Little Rock. A non-citizen, Riady hires
Carter's former SBA director, Vernon Weaver, to chair the firm. The launch is
accomplished with the aid of a $2 million loan guaranteed by the SBA. Weaver
uses Governor Clinton as a character reference to help get the loan guarantee.
First loan goes to Little Rock Chinese restaurant owner Charlie Trie. In 1999,
reported the Washington Post, Trie, who had become a controversial fund-raiser
for President Clinton, "entered into a plea agreement with the Justice
Department yesterday, winning leniency in exchange for telling all in an
investigation of improper campaign contributions originating in China."State
regulators warn Jim McDougal's Madison Guarantee S&L to stop making
imprudent loans. Gov. Clinton is also warned of the problem but takes no
action.

1984
- Clinton
backers Jack Stevens and Mochtar Riady buy a banking firm and change its name
to Worthern Bank with Riady's 28-year-old son James as president. Other Worthen
co-owners will eventually include BCCI investor Abdullah Taha Bakhish.

1985 - The New Jersey
securities firm Bevill, Bresler & Schulman files for bankruptcy amid fraud
charges and an estimated $240 million in losses; one of the biggest apparent
losers is Stephens-dominated Worthen Bank, which holds with Bevill $52 million
of Arkansas state funds in uncollateralized repurchase agreements.

Arkansas
state pension funds -- deposited in Worthen by Governor Bill Clinton --
suddenly lose 15% of their value because of the failure of high risk,
short-term investments and the brokerage firm that bought them. The $52 million
loss is covered by a Worthen check written by Jack Stephens in the middle of
the night, an insurance policy and the subsequent purchase over the next few
months of 40% of the bank by Mochtar Riady. Clinton and Worthen escape a major
scandal.Arkansas
state pension funds -- deposited in Worthen by Governor Bill Clinton --
suddenly lose 15% of their value because of the failure of high risk,
short-term investments and the brokerage firm that bought them. The $52 million
loss is covered by a Worthen check written by Jack Stephens in the middle of
the night, an insurance policy and the subsequent purchase over the next few
months of 40% of the bank by Mochtar Riady. Clinton and Worthen escape a major
scandal.Mochtar
and James Riady engineer the takeover of the First National Bank of Mena in a
town of 5,000 with few major assets beyond a Contra supply base, drug running
and money-lauNdering operations.

1987
- Harken
Energy, with George W Bush on the board, gets rescued by aid from the
BCCI-connected Union Bank of Switzerland in a deal brokered by Jackson
Stephens, later to show up as a key supporter of Bill Clinton. The deal was
also pushed along by another Clinton friend, David Edwards. Edwards will bring
BCCI-linked investors into Harken deals including Abdullah Bakhsh, purchases
$10 million in shares of Stephens dominated Worthen Bank.

1989
- Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau begins a wide-ranging probe of BCCI.

James
Riady takes over operations of a new branch of the Lippo Bank, working with Hong
Kong Lippo executive, John Huang. China Resources Company Ltd begins buying
stock in the branch, Hong Kong Chinese Bank, at 15% below market value.
Intelligence sources later report that the firm is really a front for Chinese
military intelligence.

1991
-
The Federal Reserve begins an investigation of BCCI's alleged control of First
American Bank. A few months later BCCI itself is shut down in what would be
revealed as the world's biggest bank scandal ever.

1992 - The Worthen Bank
gives Clinton a $3.5 million line of credit allowing the cash-strapped
candidate to finish the primaries. Stephens Inc. employees give Clinton more
than $100,000 for his presidential campaign.

A
grand jury indicts BCCI principals, including Clark Clifford and Robert Altman

Resolution Trust Corporation field officers forward a criminal referral on
Madison Guaranty to Charles Banks, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Arkansas. The referral alleges a check-kiting scheme by Madison owners Jim and
Susan McDougal and names the Clintons and Jim Guy Tucker as possible
beneficiaries. Banks forwards the referral to Washington.

James Riady, his family, and employees give
$700,000 to Clinton and the Democratic campaign.

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Regularly ahead of the curve, the Review has opposed federal drug policy for nearly 50 years, was a lonely media voice against the massive freeways planned for Washington, was an early advocate of bikeways and light rail, and helped spur the creation of the DC Statehood Party and the national Green Party,

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Even before Clinton's nomination we exposed Arkansas political scandals that would later become major issues. .

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in 1965 we called for the end of the draft.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start six organizations (including the DC Humanities Council, the national Green Party, and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.